Soul Sacrifice’s “excruciating decisions” are there to evoke an emotional response, says Inafune

Keiji Inafune said one of the reasons he incorporated such tough decisions into Soul Sacrifice was to evoke an emotional response from the player.

Speaking in an interview with the PS Blog regarding the game’s release on Vita, Inafune said “excruciating decisions” such has the ones players make in the game, is also part of the current era of development.

“Those types of choices heavily involve emotional aspects and the decision making process isn’t automatic,” he said. “In the old days, the decision making process for players was a reflex: stepping right or left in order to avoid a bullet. That doesn’t involve your emotions. But let’s say you have two choices and either decision will cause a different character to die.

“Then you would have to question yourself and also consider the consequences you will live with. This has a stronger tie to your emotions.

“I’ve been in the game industry for a long time and gaming in general seems to be headed towards emotion. I think we’re in the era of incorporating feelings and emotions in video games and it’s about how to design these. Soul Sacrifice, for example, asks you who to sacrifice be it yourself or your friends. You could make a decision not to sacrifice anything and let it be, too.

“You can’t make these decisions without being emotionally involved. I think future games need to incorporate emotional elements.”